Golden, crunchy and creamy bread pudding. Yum!

I'm always amazed when I see recipes that are unnecessarily rich as in too much butter, sugar, egg yolks and especially cream. When I worked as a pastry chef back in the nineties, there was a huge trend towards light cooking. Sometimes, as with the single-pea-on-the-plate spa cooking trend, it was ridiculous. But other ideas were smart. For instance, why make crème anglaise with cream when it's thick and luscious when made with milk? Properly cooked egg yolks are the secret to thickening this custard sauce not cream. But keep the number of egg yolks reasonable and cut back on the sugar to make a custard that tastes good while keeping the unnecessary calories away. 

But lately I'm seeing all that cream and sugar slink back into custard recipes, chief among them bread pudding. Why oh why make bread pudding with an excess of sugar and heavy cream? Those goddesses of decadence, Nigella Lawson and Ina Garten, both douse their bread puddings -- made with croissants no less -- with cream and too much sugar. This isn't bread pudding, it's croissants wrapped around crème brûlée. And hey, while you're at it, why not add a scoop of ice cream on top?

Wrong, I say, not to mention, yuck. Sweet and rich has no place in my dessert repertoire and since I prefer bread pudding for breakfast, the last thing I want is to start the day bogged down with such a calorific indulgence.

Instead, think of bread pudding as you would French toast. Make it will milk, and if you want it sweet, serve it with maple syrup alongside so each person can determine the sweetness of his or her dish.

Here's my version of bread pudding. If you don't have croissants use brioche, or to lighten it up further, any white bread or baguette. Even without the cream and excess sugar, this pudding remains positively delicious. 

Recipe: Croissant bread pudding